US President Barack Obama faced demands for a new US strategy on the deepening crisis in Iraq on Wednesday, as the White House insisted he had not ruled out Baghdad's request for air strikes. US President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC. (AFP/Mandel Ngan) But there were no signs renewed military action was imminent in a war Obama had declared at an end, as the president mulled a range of options drawn up by his advisors. The White House, pushing back on reports that said Obama had decided no air strikes would take place immediately, said the president had yet to discount direct military action. "The only thing the president has ruled out is sending troops back into combat in Iraq, but he continues to consider other options," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. "Work is being done that will help us see with more clarity what the options available to the president are," Carney added, when asked to clarify whether Obama had ruled out air strikes. Secretary of State John Kerry reinforced the message in an interview with NBC. "Nothing is off the table. All options are still available to the president," Kerry said, adding Obama was "very intensely vetting" his plan. Obama's other options include a possible drone campaign against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters or stepped up assistance and training to Iraqi government forces. - Squandered gains - One official said that, while there was rampant speculation in Washington about US responses to the seizures of vast swathes of territory in Iraq by ISIL, Obama "has not made a decision." Before any action in Iraq, Washington is also demanding Shiite Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki show a new spirit of political inclusion. The opinion is hardening here that official persecution of the minority Sunni community eased the takeover of Sunni areas by an extremist group branded extreme even by Al-Qaeda. Earlier, the top US military officer, General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, blamed the Iraqi government for the deepening sectarian mire. "There is very little that could have been done to overcome the degree to which the government of Iraq had failed its people. "That's what has caused this problem," Dempsey told lawmakers when asked if the United States could have taken action to counter the advance of Sunni militants. He said US warnings to Maliki's government of the risks of alienating rival religious communities had simply been ignored. Earlier, Iraq had officially requested US air support against the rebels which have occupied some key cities, including Mosul and other strategic targets, during an eight-day offensive. Obama met Democratic Congressional chiefs Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and Republican party bosses, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. The meeting took place against revived and fierce political debate, with Republicans saying Obama had squandered the gains of a bloody war that was essentially won when he pulled out all US troops in 2011. Democrats charge that former president George W Bush blew the lid off Iraq's bottled up sectarian stew by invading the country in 2003 and that Maliki threw away a chance for a stable future for Iraq wrought by US blood and treasure. Before Boehner joined the talks, he asked for a "broader strategy for how we help keep the freedom that we paid dearly for for the people of Iraq." - Partisan clash - After the leaders emerged, McConnell underscored the partisan clash over Iraq. "Unfortunately, Iraqi security forces are now less capable than when the president withdrew the entirety of our force without successfully negotiating a remaining US presence capable of preserving our gains and mentoring our partners," McConnell said. Pelosi said she was pleased Obama would not send troops back to Iraq and argued Obama would not need new authorisation from Congress if he took military action in Iraq. McConnell also later told reporters Obama believed he did not need new authorisation from lawmakers to act. But a decision to commit US forces to action could trigger a new showdown with Congress, following complaints Obama did not consult lawmakers on the deal with the Taliban to free US soldier Bowe Bergdahl in Afghanistan. The row over what to do about the current crisis in Iraq, also drew in an venerable combatant: former vice president Dick Cheney, who penned a savage critique of Obama's foreign policy on the opinion page of the Wall Street Journal. "Rarely has a US president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many," Cheney said in a column co-authored by daughter Liz Cheney, a former State Department official. - AFP/ec